Click a Web site, get a call.

Sure, the Internet lets real estate agents and other salespeople show their
listings to a worldwide audience. But when San Diego yacht broker James Taylor created a Web page, the number of phone inquiries he was getting actually decreased. "We were making so much information available that people had no reason to call us," he says. That meant Taylor was losing opportunities
to do what salespeople do best: convert interested browsers into committed buyers.

The solution: a Web-based form that requires visitors to provide their contact info before viewing a complete listing. But instead of simply sending the info to an email address, the form also forwards it to the salesperson's cell phone. "Your phone beeps, and you know someone's looking at your listings at that moment," says Taylor. "And you can act on their momentary interest by calling them directly."

Of course, some visitors won't actually share their contact info
just to look at a few more pictures. But those who do, Taylor says,
"are almost always pleasantly
surprised by the rapid response." While email to cell phone message-forwarding isn't new, Taylor notes few brokers of
any kind are
making use of it. Sensing a potential market, he's created eFastResponse.com, a service that makes it easy for salespeople to add such functionality to their
Web pages. "You fill out a few
online forms and then add a link," Taylor says. "In ten minutes, you can turn your passive Web site into
an interactive marketing event." Cost for the service? About $1
per message received.